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Langwidere
Princess Langwidere of Ev Ozma of Oz (1907) Princess Langwidere is the spoiled and conceited Niece of King Evoldo who lives in a kingdom in the Land of Ev, which is very small fantasy-land that happens to neighbor the magical Land of Oz across the Deadly Desert. Langwidere is a self proclaimed Princess who ruled as regent in the absense of the Royal family. Baum's Description Ozma of Oz (1907) Princess Langwidere lives all alone in a tiny Kingdom in the land of Ev. The only company she has is from her maids and ladies in waiting. Langwidere does not like to socialize with commoners or even other royalty or people of noble blood. She rarely interacts with others too much and prefers to simply seclude herself much of the time to keep from being interrupted from her daily rituals of pampering or awaken when she is catching her beauty sleep or having one of her many daily naps. In her life of nearly complete isolation. Langwidere entertains herself as she has thirty young heads that are interchangeable on her neck. All are described to be very striking and all are very beautiful, having nice eyes, rich hair and flawless skin that has a glow. Instead of changing her outfits or jewlery every day, such as wearing different crowns or tiaras, she simply changes her head to accessorize or match her current state of mood, rather it be a good mood she is in or a bad one. The heads are said to all be safely kept in a vast bejewelled boudoir known as her "cabinet" in her sleeping chambers. These precious heads are described as being very attractive in bone struture with soft features that run and vary through all combinations of hair and eye colors (except for gray hair and red, tired eyes), skin tones, and even noses of different shapes to represent different ethnicities. Langwidere herself, is very vain, conceited, selfish and ultimately lazy as she generally spends every waking moment of her life indoors admiring whichever head she's currently wearing in her large mirrored chambers and napping in the day for hours at a time. She highly enjoys constantly changing heads whenever she pleases and adopts a new look when she is tiresome of sitting on her vanity-chair admiring her reflections or simply bored with playing music on her Mandolin. Since she can change her face at will, she has no interest in fashion or beautiful clothing. She always wears a simple white silk gown that falls gracefully to the floor like a wedding dress. Langwidere is said to wear only white because the clolor white suits any of her heads look. Because her appearance changes so frequently, even Langwidere's loyal maid Nanda can only recognize her by a ruby-red key which she wears on a chain attached to her left wrist, and which opens up all of her bejewled cabinets. History After King Evoldo sold off his family to the infamous Nome King, and threw himself into the deep sea, his Niece, Princess Langwidere by default became regent of the Royal Kingdom in the country of Ev. She spent a lot of money from the Royal-Treasury and the family fortune, vainly on herself. She also only spent ten minutes of every day actually governing and tending to matters of state which was not enough. But much so as she did not care about the people of her land. Furthermore, she admitted that she would rather spend those ten minutes admiring her beauty in a mirror. When Dorothy Gale of Kansas met Langwidere, the Princess was wearing No. 17, which is her most beautiful head but comes with a temper. Langwidere curtly told Dorothy that she was boring and stupid, and dismissed her. Then, after closely inspecting Dorothy's face, she changed her mind and said that Dorothy should stay so that Langwidere could take her head and add it to her collection, offering Dorothy one of her less attractive heads, No. 26, in exchange. Dorothy was indignant at this and refused; she was then imprisoned by the Princess's guards until she would consent to Langwidere's demands. The next day, Dorothy was rescued by Princess Ozma of Oz, who along with the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and other Oz creatures, was passing through Ev on a mission to rescue the Royal Family from the Nome King. At first, Langwidere was furious that Ozma and her assembly had stormed her palace, but when the Oz party explained the nature of their mission, Langwidere completely calmed down and said she supported them because if the Royal Family was restored to rule the kingdom, she could finally devote all her time toward admiring herself in the mirror. Langwidere then freed Dorothy, provided room and board for Ozma's people, and told them where to find the Nome King's kingdom. When the Oz people returned successfully from their mission, the Queen of Ev graciously allowed Langwidere to keep her rooms and her cabinet of heads. (Ozma of Oz) In Return to Oz-1985 A headless Princess Mombi in Return to Oz Baum's character of Princess Langwidere is combined with another Oz character, the Witch Mombi in the Disney cult classic 1985 film Return to Oz which was an adaptation of The Marvelous Land of Oz which is the second Oz book by Baum and Ozma of Oz, the third book by Baum out of the thirteen Oz novels he wrote as official sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Return to Oz combined these stories together for the live-action non musical version of the books. In Return to Oz, this character is called Princess Mombi. Mombi is a Wicked Witch with thirty beautiful heads kept in a long hallway of solid gold-glass cabnets. These heads were harvested from the dancing slave girls of the Emerald City. These slave girls of Oz were decapitated and then all magically turned into hard cold stone statues with the rest of the city citizens by the wrathful Nome King who took over all of Oz with the power of the Ruby Slippers. Princess Mombi is an underling of the Nome King and was responsible for keeping Princess Ozma a secret and imprisoned in the enchanted mirrors of her palace chambers in the only standing building in the ruins of the Emerald City. After escaping Mombi, Dorothy Gale and her companions made a journey to the Nome mountain across the Deadly Desert, to rescue the King Scarecrow whom the Nome King had kidnapped and wrongly accused of stealing his emeralds. Dorothy was able to restore the land of Oz back to normal once again and the Nome King was defeated and ultimately killed in the process. Mombi's life was spared... however, as harsh punishment for her crimes, Mombi was forever stripped of her title as a Princess and was also stripped of her magic powers for good when the curse over Oz was broken and Ozma was released from the enchanted mirror. In the end of the movie, Princess Ozma takes back her rightful place as Queen of Oz. And she states that a Witch with no magic, is a "miserable creature" indeed. And with a upset Mombi agreeing as she replies from her bared iron cage: "And that's a fact!" Dorothy and the Witches of Oz :Main Article: Princess Langwidere (The Witches of Oz) :Main Article: Ilsa Lang :Main Article: Ev Locast Princess Langwidere is one of the allies of the Wicked Witch of the West. She also disguises herself as an actress named Ilsa Lang. As Langwidere, she attacks Dorothy in her home in Kansas, leading her to realize that her Oz stories are more than just stories. Later, as Ilsa Lang, she tries to take the role of Dorothy in the movie version of Dorothy's Oz book, corrupting it in the process. She also takes on the role of Ev Locast with another of her heads. (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz) Background Langwidere was created by L. Frank Baum, and appears only in Ozma of Oz, the third book in the Oz series. As depicted in an illustration by John R. Neill, Langwidere's looks are styled on the Gibson girl standard of beauty which was popular at the time of this novel's publication. The theme of interchangeable or detachable heads appears to have been a recurring motif at this point in Baum's writing career. Other examples of this appear in his fifth Oz book, The Road to Oz, in the form of the Scoodlers, and the transformations of Button-Bright and the Shaggy Man. In the 1985 movie Return to Oz, the character of Princess Mombi is largely based on Princess Langwidere. Credits *Jean Marsh, Sophie Ward and Fiona Victory as Princess Mombi (Return to Oz, 1985) *Mia Sara as Langwidere (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, 2011) *Sasha Jackson as "Ilsa Lang" (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, 2011) *Jessica Sonneborn as "Ev Locast" (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, 2011) Notes *The character of Princess Mombi is actually Langwidere. Her name and the fact that she is more evil and has powers is based on Mombi. References Was the inspiration for one of the knitting patterns published in What Would Madam Defarge Knit in 2011, a reversible cowl. Category:Oz Book Characters Category:Land of Ev Category:Antagonists Category:Princesses Category:Rulers in Oz